Not having heard
from you concerning my reply about NYT's glowing account of Sathya Sai Baba
under cover of the first visit of the Indian President, I hasten to point
out to you the shocking 14% increase in military spending in India's new
budget. (Projected Defense Expenditure
Rs.58, 5870 million or $13.4 billion).
The Indian President's former place of work,
the Space Department, where he designed the delivery vehicles for nuclear
weapons, shares in the Atomic Energy Department's 68% increase in funding!
Perhaps Mr. Bradsher - or preferable a less devoted follower of Sai Baba -
will explain to the world how Sathya Sai Baba is proving a "friend to all
the world", when his devoted followers like the Indian Prime Minister and
most of his government are in actual practice defying the world community on
this matter as never before.
That Prime Minister Vajpayee, like several of
his forerunners including P.V. Narasimha Rao, accepts Sathya Sai Baba
literally as God Incarnate, an Omnipotent Avatar of Krishna and Rama
come to earth to save the world, ought to raise a few eyebrows, even at your
venerable newspaper. The many consequences of this are rather amazing.
Really, your paper has a public duty to pursue this issue and research it
all properly... For a start, I attach two pieces of objective information
from the website "The Global Beat - resources for the global journalist."
Sincerely,
Robert Priddy
(retired researcher and lecturer in philosophy and sociology, formerly of
the University of Oslo, Norway from 1967 to 1987. UK citizen, 66 years
old, a founder member and leader for nearly two decades of the Sathya Sai
Organisation in Norway) Full address & tel. no. given.
See
Indian Defense Budget 2000-2001
India's New Military Budget: A Dangerous
Proposal